Very Carefully
by blueandblack
Summary: Neville and Luna, when everything is over with. Written for a meme at my LJ where people can ask for any pairing or character they want provided I'm familiar with it.


It's been a week since everything was over with.

Neville follows Luna to their spot on the Hogwarts lawn.

They haven't gone looking for it in months, for obvious reasons, and that might have made it difficult to find - if it weren't for the fact that it's always been different every time anyway.

There's nothing random about their spot though, Luna explained that a long time ago. She always chooses carefully, and based on top secret criteria.

(The one thing she will tell him is that it is always an equal distance from Oddly Named And Possibly Made Up Foe #1 and Oddly Named And Possibly Made Up Foe #2.)

When they get there she nods, so Neville knows.

And then she lies down, looks up. She thinks she loves the sun better than anything in the world.

(She knows the loves the irony of that.)

Neville lies down beside her and whistles - in his head – it's much easier to carry a tune that way.

He's drowsy instantly. Sometimes, on the nights he can't sleep, he imagines it's a summer's day and he's out here, lying on the Hogwarts lawn with Luna Lovegood.

(It never works because she's always talking, but it always makes him feel better.)

Luna wakes him up now too. She says "Harry said you're special," in that relaxed, thoughtful way she says most things.

Neville turns around onto his stomach, props himself up on his elbows.

"That's awfully nice of him," he says cheerfully. His smile doesn't fade when he checks - "It was in a nice way, wasn't it?"

"Oh yes," Luna assures him, "Harry's almost always nice about the people he likes."

Neville's about to roll back over when she asks "Don't you want to know what else he said?"

He shrugs. "Alright," he says.

Luna looks his way and she thinks that if she weren't already smiling she might have started at the sight of him. He's squinting at the sunlight, there are thin strings of grass dangling from the back of his head that could never be called blades.

Luna swallows. She clears her throat like a little laugh.

"He said there was a prophecy. That you're special - that's why you could pull the sword out of the hat."

"Oh yeah," Neville says. His forehead crinkles, he looks down at his hands. "He told me about that too actually - that I might have been like him if Voldemort had..." He presses his front teeth into his lower lip, mutters "Well, he got my parents anyway, didn't he?"

Luna shakes her head. "Not really," she says. "I'm pretty sure they're still in there. My father doesn't remember me, but he still looks at me the same way."

Neville smiles uncomfortably even if he feels suddenly safe. It's always like that with Luna.

He's trying to think of something profound to say when she speaks again.

"Anyway, I think Harry might be wrong," she says.

"Oh?" Neville asks and he sounds just the tiniest bit disappointed.

He is - he likes the idea of being special - Luna can tell.

She doesn't falter. She doesn't rush. She says "Yes." She says "Prophecies are a bit ridiculous when you think about it."

Neville tries to raise one of his eyebrows. It wriggles with the other for a moment before they both settle back down. "Don't let the centaurs hear you saying that," he says with a grin.

Luna turns her head, tips her eyes back toward the forest. "No," she says very gravely, "Nor the Bobloms."

Neville laughs, and even though it's a very serious matter, she doesn't mind.

"You see," she says, "I think if you're special, it's probably _because_ you were able to pull the sword out of the hat."

She rolls over onto her stomach too now, and from above their bodies are a long straight line.

It's sort of shady like this. They can see each other properly.

Luna says "Or perhaps if you're special it has nothing to do with all that at all."

She smiles, knocks his elbows with hers.

Neville's cheeks colour a moment too soon, and it's perfect.

It's perfect when Luna says "To me, for instance."


End file.
